Ways of Knowing:

Emotion
Theory of Knowledge
Year One
 At the core
Motivation Emotion

Moveo, Moti, Motum

Movere (Latin)
=
to move, arouse, affect, influence
 Emotions
shape the
landscape
our our
mental and
social lives.
Martha Nussbaum,
author of
Upheavals of
Thought: the
intelligence of
emotion
The
Scope and
Range
of
Emotion(s)
 What Causes It?
External
Triggers
 Differences: A Question of
Culture
• Tahitians, Germans & You
• Priorities
• Evoked… or not
• The non-verbals

So what’s the deal? Who decides what

“works” and what doesn’t?
 Knowing Our Emotions
1. How are you feeling right now, at this
moment? How do you know?
2. Why do you think you’re feeling this
way?
3. Share it… (but try to guess what your
partner is feeling BEFORE he/she says
it.
4. To what extent do you think knowing
your own feelings depends on knowing
the feelings of others and others depend
on knowing yours?
Can you be wrong?
 Emotional Intelligence

• 45,900,000
• Howard Gardner
 Knowing through Perception

Senses Gather: but

can they be wrong?
How is someone feeling?
 Knowing Emotion
• Through Language
• External Clues
• Invisible Emotion
 How do you fix not knowing?
Dr. Paul Ekman
Anger Amusement
Disgust Contempt
Fear Embarrassment
Happiness Excitement
Sadness Guilt
Surprise Pride
Relief
Sensory Pleasure
Pain
 Knowing Emotion
• Through Reason
• Relationship
• Application
The James-Lange Theory
Interpretation of
Specific specific
Perception of emotion- physiological
physiological
arousing stimulus changes as the
changes
emotion

The James-Lange theory of emotion states that different emotion-

arousing external stimuli will produce specific physiological
changes that in turn directly cause specific emotional feelings.

Thus, the external stimuli of a dangerous object will cause the

physiological response of adrenaline release / increased heart
rate, which in turn is felt as the emotion of fear.

According to this theory, you are afraid because you run.

 1. The person
The James-Lange Theory perceives the
stimulus (snake)

2. Information about
the snake is
processed in the
visual cortex (in the
neo-cortex, the
reasoning part of the
brain).

3. An emotional response occurs in the amygdala.

4. The emotional response triggers a physical reaction, such as

fighting or running away.
 Counterclaim: Le Doux’s Theory

thalamus

Le Doux’s work revealed how

the architecture of the brain
gives the amygdala a privileged
position as an emotional
sentinel, able to hijack the
amygdala
brain. His research has shown
visual cortex that sensory signals from eye
or ear travel first in the brain to
the thalamus, and then to the
amygdala; a second signal from
the thalamus is routed to the
neocortex – the thinking brain.
This branching allows the
amygdala to begin to respond
before the neocortex, which
Therefore, impulsive feeling does
mulls information through
sometimes override the rational part of several levels of brain circuits
the brain. before it fully perceives and
finally initiates a more finely
tailored response. (Goleman:
17)
 Emotion & Reason

Opposition or Balance ?
 Its Complementary

Recent Research
(classical—Phineas Gage)

Our Decision Making Capabilities

Would you agree with the assertion that
reasoning can guide emotion?
 What about the converse?
The belief that emotion can guide reason
 Emotion & Belief

Justify your beliefs…

Can you? What do you use?

rational argument (define rational)
self-evident
 Emotional Education

• What shapes us?

• What is acceptable?
• The “right” attitudes and actions
*we’ll talk about “right” in the Ethics section 
• What are we trying to educate?
For Example

Apathy
Sympathy
Empathy
 Where is Emotion Important

Which subject upholds emotion as the most

important way of knowing?

Where do you know other things by

knowing your own emotions and the
emotions of others?
 Emotion & our AoK

• The Arts
• Natural [hard] Science
• Human [soft] Science
• History
• Mathematics
• Ethics